By Uddipta N. Borah

The old demons came back to haunt the Assam cricket team once again as they faced another batting collapse and bundled out for a paltry 121 in their 1st innings. Odisha faced some early scare but regained their composure to end the day at a decent 86- 3.

Earlier in the day, the visitors won the toss and opted to bowl. It was a poor start for the hosts as both their openers, Rishav Das and Pervez Aziz were dismissed with not even 20 runs on board. India Under-19 star Riyan Parag played a few good shots but could not continue for long. Arup Das and Ranjit Mali used the long handle towards the end to take the team score above 100. An early start meant the ball was doing quite a bit which helped the Odisha bowlers to restrict Assam to a below average score of 121. Rajesh Mohanty was the pick of the bowlers with 5 wickets giving away just 31 runs in 18 overs.

Coming on to bowl, the star of Assam’s last match, Mukhtar Hussain immediately made an impact picking up 3 quick wickets and Odisha suddenly found themselves in a spot of bother. However, Odisha soon recovered, courtesy opener Anurag Sarangi’s unbeaten 61 to take the team’s score to 86-3 at the end of day’s play and trailing Assam’s 1st innings score by just 35 runs.